Professor Lynn Jones receives Bradley Grant to Acquire Armenian Gospel Facsimile

Professor Lynn Jones recently received a Robert B. Bradley Library Research Grant to partially fund the acquisition of a facsimile of the Codex Etchmiadzin. The manuscript is a tenth-century Armenian Gospel that incorporates ivory covers and fifteen seventh-century full-page illuminations, which comprise some of the earliest Armenian book illuminations. The codex was likely created in the monastery of Noravank in the Blen province and emended in the twelfth century. Funds from the Bradley Grant were supplemented by FSU Special Collections and Archives in Strozier Library, where the facsimile will be housed. The library’s acquisition of the Codex Etchmiadzin facsimile is particularly significant because only one other library in North America owns a copy of it.

Dr. Jones has consistently promoted the library’s collection of important Armenian and Byzantine facsimiles. She previously won Bradley Grants to support the acquisition of two other major facsimiles: the Menologion of Basil II, an ornately decorated church service calendar from circa 1000 created for the Byzantine Emperor Basil II, and the The Joshua Roll, the only illuminated manuscript in scroll form to survive from the Middle Byzantine period. The Joshua Roll, dating to the 10th century, is over 10 meters in length and is likely incomplete. It focuses on the military success of Joshua, using text from the Old Testament Book of Joshua (Chapters II-IX).